Priced out of the legal system

All people are meant to be equal before the law, but the reality is that some are more equal than others.

Those people tend to be the ones with the money to pay for the top lawyers to navigate a complicated and expensive legal system.

I used to be one of those lawyers. Big companies would pay the firm where I worked around $400 an hour for my time providing expert advice on employment law. We had all the resources and expertise they needed, and the legal system worked well enough for them, and for others who could afford the price.

When I moved across to work in a community legal centre in Melbourne's western fringe, I got a wake up a call. We were inundated every day with calls from people needing legal help who couldn't afford a lawyer.

Some, on basically poverty line incomes, with mainly serious criminal and family law issues, would qualify for a grant of legal aid paid for by the government.

For everyone else - we were it.

Every day was a challenge. We helped many but were forced to turn many others away. For those who got help, there was still enormous pressure to try and resolve things quickly. Every hour spent on one person's issue was an hour not spent with the next person trying to get in to see us.

And those getting in were the lucky ones. We knew there were plenty more in the community who were simply giving up on their rights because they didn't know where to turn.

We worked hard to help people often under extreme stress. An elderly client travelled over 30km on the bus to see us. She couldn't sleep at night because she was being unfairly sued in Western Australia for not paying for a service she never agreed to.

A young tiler was sacked for questioning his boss after finding out he was being underpaid, and a P plater was being threatened by a big insurance company for an accident in which he wasn't at fault.

A mother was out of her mind with worry because her mentally ill son was in prison and had been locked in solitary confinement 23 hours a day for 11 months. One man, being harassed by debt collectors after a car crash, talked about killing himself.

We secured legal protection for women with violent spouses and helped victims of childhood sexual abuse, referred to us by the local sexual assault counselling centre, to get compensation and understand the criminal justice system.

The office, like the salary, was basic, as budgets were stretched to help as many people as possible. We relied heavily on volunteer lawyers and law students as well as pro bono help (work for free) from law firms and barristers.

This is the everyday story of 200 community legal centres around Australia. Overwhelmed with demand and constantly being forced to make tough decisions about who to help, who to turn away, and how much help people get.

It shouldn't be this way. Australians should have equal access to the law regardless of their finances, social situation or location. The ability to access quality legal support should be a basic, essential service for all. Without it, the law becomes meaningless.

Many people don't know where to start when legal issues arise, and when they seek the help of private lawyer, they find that the cost of getting help for anything other than the most basic issue quickly becomes prohibitive.

When those who can't afford a lawyer turn to government-funded legal services for help, they find a system so stretched that many miss out.

Community legal centres are the first port of call for thousands of Australians who are unsure of their rights and uncertain of where to turn. Unfortunately, existing centres are underfunded and overwhelmed with demand.

Worse, there are areas across Australia, from Broome to Orange and to the Yarra Ranges, where thousands of ordinary Australians do not have access to a local centre at all.

Repeated government and parliamentary inquiries over the past decade have highlighted the problem of access to justice in Australia. The Australia Institute recently conservatively estimated that around half a million Australians miss out on legal support each year.

We need a proper safety net, like we have for health and education, so that all Australians can get the legal help they need. The safety net should focus on cost-effective early information, advice and support to prevent legal issues from occurring or escalating.

Establishing this will require decisive action backed by a major increase in government investment in legal assistance services.

The cost of inaction is an unequal legal system where those who can pay get better justice.

Hugh de Kretser is a community lawyer and spokesperson for Community Law Australia. View his full profile here.